The World May Break, But We Must Endure
by Grimmgirl4ever
Summary: The world shattered to pieces so many years ago, and this is how we carry on. We must carry on. For ourselves and the ones we lost. After the Everafter war, so many were lost. Most notably its heroes, Sabrina Grimm and Puck. They died. That was easy. The ones who are left are the ones who must endure.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**A/N: Hey lovelies, I'm backkkkk! And thank god for that. So this story was originally posted under Daphne's Locked Heart, and if you read that one despite its awfulness, thank you. You are greatly appreciated. Looking back on that story, I was cringing every 5 seconds so I decided to re-write it. And this is the product of it. I think it's much better than the original. This story will follow most of the original plot that I had laid out, just with longer chapters, and much better writing. And maybe a twist or two. (One might be kind obvious by the end of the chapter.) I just want to thank my reviewers on the original, who inspired me to be better. Especially Chicly. Your tough love is exactly what I needed. Now on to the story!**

 _"There are moments that the words don't reach,_

 _There is suffering too terrible to name,_

 _You hold your child as tight as you can,_

 _And push away the unimaginable"_

 _~Hamilton_

The girl stood over a grave. Her small frame was quivering, shaking, with tears. Her sobs rang out in the empty clearing, where she stood alone among rows and rows of grave sites, all with flowers or other things placed on them. Only a few sat bare. This one was not however; there were flowers, pictures, little notes from loved ones. For the girl that was buried there was loved, oh so much. Perhaps the most by her the one who now watched over her, her sister.

Daphne Grimm fell to her knees by her sister's grave, because her legs could no longer support her. And there she stayed with the sun beating down on her, for hours, until she could cry no more and was exhausted by the weight of her grief, Daphne fell asleep.

Later, her father came and picked her up. He carried her to the war camp and returned to the site with his wife. The two of them broke; they could no longer keep up the façade. For this was their daughter who had died! The first born, the one that had bestowed upon them the title "Mummy" and "Daddy". The precious angel that they hadn't had enough time with. She was gone. And there was no way to bring her back.

They, like their daughter before them, cried until their tears ran dry.

"We have to leave this town Veronica. Daphne needs a better life than this. We have to go." the man said. His wife looked up at him sadly and nodded. She would not fight him this time.

"Where? Where will we go, Henry? I can't go back to New York, there are way too many Everafters."

"Then we'll pick a place. Someplace sunny. Where they've never heard of Everafters. We'll get a new start."

Although they made excuses for the move, they knew, deep down, that the real reason was their dead daughter. Sabrina was everywhere in Ferryport Landing and New York. They needed a place where her memory wasn't all over the city, where they could walk around without hearing the echo of her laugh and seeing the flash of her blue eyes.

They wrapped their arms around each other and sat together in the hot sun for hours later, remembering their daughter's beautiful life.

In New York City, a queen was having a breakdown. She was throwing things and screaming, tears dripping down her face, although she didn't seem to notice. The woman had given up her stately appearance, and was screaming out for her son. But of course he didn't come. For he was buried in a grave of concrete. He was someplace where he would never hear her.

"Puck!" Her screech was deafening, and her son in the next room winced. His grief was much more silent. He had locked himself in his room as soon as they had gotten home from the mausoleum. He was going over the letter that his older brother had written. "In the event of my death". The boy spoke for the first time in what seemed like days.

"You're an Everafter Puck. You can't die. You weren't supposed to die… What am I going to do?"

He lit the paper on fire, knowing that it didn't matter, he couldn't erase the words. They were already playing themselves over in his head.

Leaning his head against the wall, he heard the crash of another priceless artifact hitting the wall. And in that moment, he didn't care. Let her destroy them; let her destroy the whole freaking kingdom. For his brother was gone. The world was saved, but his brother was gone. How was that supposed to be a fair trade?

In perfect coordination with his mother, Mustardseed let out a sob. It didn't matter that they had saved the world. His world was shattering to pieces around him.

Years later, Daphne hadn't forgotten that war. So many people had died, Puck, Sabrina. And so many more Everafters that Daphne had never even met. She missed the two of them every day, and every single damn thing that she saw reminded her of them. Of the brother and sister that she had lost. She told herself that at least they were together, for one of them being without the other was a worser fate.

Veronica and Henry had decided that it was time to move back to Manhattan. They knew they could get a stable job there, so that would mean no more moving around for Daphne. She could finish her last two years of high school in peace.

The family hoped that the Everafter War was far enough in the past that they would be left at least relatively alone. And as well as that, they hoped that the memories of Sabrina would only be good, and they could learn to remember her with fondness, and not the sadness that currently laced her memory.

On her first day of 11th grade, Daphne stood at the door to the office nervously as she waited for her parents to finish signing the documents that would allow her to attend at Dalewood High School. Her hands gripped her schedule tightly and she tried not to rip it up. No matter how many times you do this, she thought, it's always terrifying.

Her parents came out of the office.

"There's no problem, baby." Veronica said soothingly "You can start school today, when the bell rings."

"Which is in about 30 minutes" Henry said, checking his watch "We better go, I have to get to work." He scooped her into a hug, and Daphne couldn't bring herself to care that it was in the middle of a crowded hallway. She hugged him back just as fiercely. Veronica opted for a kiss on the cheek to her youngest daughter and the whispered words, "Good luck"

And with that, they were gone, leaving Daphne to figure out where she was, and where she had to go. She hurried to find her locker and to get in class. She wanted to make a good first impression, didn't she?

She pressed through the crowd of people, and unconsciously picked out two or three possible Everafters. Shaking her head, she made a conscious effort to shut down that part of her brain. The only thing she wanted to be worried about now was finding her class, and not getting elbowed in the ribs.

Daphne reached her classroom, and went to go open the door, a voice from behind stopped her.

"Ms. Welhiam always keeps her door locked until 5 minutes before the bell. It's a pain. But if you don't know that, you must be new."

The girl who had spoken was beautiful. Her hair was a poof of inky coils and her skin was a earthy brown. But her eyes, oh her eyes were what really captured Daphne. They were pools of melted chocolate with flecks of gold and emerald. She was sucked into them, only snapping back after the girl stuck out her hand and said,

"I'm Rae." Daphne took the outstretched hand, finding the girl's handshake strong.

"Dap-Daphne." She replied, stumbling over her own name. God damn it. Why could she never act normal around pretty girls? "And yeah, you're right. I'm new"

"Well then Daphne, do you want to come sit over here with me until Ms. Welhiam shows up? I can teach you the rest of this dump's unofficial rules."

Daphne smiled and nodded. Yes, she would love that. She took Rae's hand and trailed behind her, laughing a bit, because it was her first day, and before school had even started she found a friend.


	2. Chapter 2

Rae giggled as she led Daphne through the crowds towards the cafeteria.

 _Well that's half of the day of done._ Daphne thought with relief. Honestly, being back in a real school was exhausting, but in a good way, a normal way. Not a, fear for your life, always keep your guard up, way. She had been lucky for Rae was in her two first classes, but after lunch Daphne would be on her own trying to find her way to her next classes. Then she remembered that one kid she had met in Biology, he had period three English with her, and he seemed nice. Maybe he could be friend number two?

"Daph! Yo! Earth to Daphne!" Rae was tugging on her arm; she was already seated, and was motioning for Daphne to sit next to her. "Come on Daph, they don't bite!"

Daphne shook herself out of her thoughts and plopped down beside the girl. Rae was introducing the people who were at the table, and the way they were acting, they had all been pretty good friends for a while.

"That's Chase, he looks mean, but he's a sweetie. And that's Beth." Rae was saying. When she introduced Beth, Daphne noticed both girls stiffened, and Rae's cheeks flushed. _An ex? A crush?_ Daphne wondered. Inexplicably she felt a pang of, was that jealousy? For it seemed as if Rae felt something for the girl sitting across from her.

"Hi. I'm Daphne." She introduced herself and started picking at her food.

"Come on, the food here's not horrible" Rae laughed. "It's slightly tolerable" As she said that, Rae put her hand on Daphne's arm. "If you really can't choke that down, I know a good place around here that serves edible food. You want to go after school? Since it's your first day, I'll pay." Daphne caught a glare from Beth that confirmed her suspicion. Defiantly an ex.

"Sorry, I can't." She gave Rae and apologetic smile "I need to go home after school, my parents and I kind of have this tradition thing on the first day of school, where we go out for dinner. But, rain check? And you're still paying. "

After that, the conversation dissolved into meaningless chatter. Daphne mostly sat back and observed, only entering into the conversation when prompted, but always with warmth. She found herself profiling these people, the people that she was becoming friends with, as if they were already potential enemies. Yet another tick from the war she had to shake off.

About halfway through lunch all the sound in the cafeteria seemed to dim, leaving only two people laughing, a girl and a boy. And for a second, Daphne thought she saw a flash of blond and green run across her vision. She dropped the fork she was holding. Rae, beside her noticed.

"Daph, hey, are you okay? Daphne?"

That snapped her out of it.

"God, sorry' She responded "I don't know where my head went there." She started packing her stuff up and went to move to the door, still in a bit of a daze"

"Daphne, are you really okay?" Rae was sounding actually concerned now, and the others at the table had stopped talking and had turned towards the two girls to see what was going on. Chuck and another girl Lea, looked worried, but Beth looked like she couldn't care less.

"Yeah, Rae, don't worry. I'm fine" Daphne picked up her book. "I'm just going to go to the washroom. Lea, I'll see you in SAP, and Rae, meet me at the lockers?" Then she left, practically running from the cafeteria.

The rest of the day past in a blur with Daphne not really paying attention to the world around her. She kept it short with Rae at the lockers, exchanging phone numbers and the like, before she made an excuse and ran off to the bus. Daphne felt bad about leaving the girl so abruptly, but she just had to get home. That, at lunch… what was it, a vision, a flashback? That had really shook her and all she wanted to do was go home a lie down.

She had been lucky in escaping the years of war without too much mental damage. She knew many that now suffered from nightly nightmares and others that could no longer hear fireworks or loud bangs without flashbacks. That did not mean that she hadn't been affected. Hardly a month went by without a dreaming about the screams of the dead and the laugh of the Master. Although the dreams were less frequent now. And she had never experienced a flashback like that during the day, while she was awake.

Daphne shook her head and realised that somehow she had made her way home. She really _was_ out of it. Unlocking the house she shouted,

"Mum? Dad? I'm home!"

No reply. Of course. Dad wouldn't be home till 4:00, and Mum 5:00. New jobs, new hours.

Grabbing a snack and dropping her school bag Daphne ran upstairs to her room and flopped down on her bed. It wasn't till later that she realised she had fallen asleep almost immediately, exhausted from her day.

 _Sabrina ran into the camp, tears streaming down her face. As soon as she crossed the threshold into the courtyard the girl collapsed, her small frame wracked with sobs. She drew her arms around herself and curled into a ball as her parents and sister ran up to her._

" _Sabrina baby, what's the matter?" Veronica said, checking her daughter's body for wounds. Henry was about to yell at the boy that had sworn to be Sabrina's protector for not saving her from whatever has caused his baby girl this pain._

" _Puck! Why…" As he looked around Henry failed to see the young fairy anywhere, when normally he would be hovering over Sabrina, fussing while trying to pretend that he didn't care._

 _At his name Sabrina only proceeded to cry harder. She was struggling to get the words out to explain what had happened._

" _He…he went over the edge of a cliff… he didn't let me save him. T-there was one of the dragons. It tore his wings. He let go of my hand… I couldn't save him." After that, Sabrina stopped talking._

 _She didn't talk for another two days._

 _Daphne sat with her for those two days while Sabrina lay in bed, barley eating, or drinking. She barely acknowledged that her family was around her, except for a squeeze of Daphne's hand once in a while. The nurse came to examine Sabrina on the second day, after she had calmed down. The diagnosis of 3 bruised ribs and a wrenched shoulder didn't even faze the girl._

 _On the third day she was up and walking around, completely against what the nurse had wanted, and still mostly silent. On the fourth she heard that the dragon was back. With a good-bye to her sister, Sabrina Grimm walked out of the compound._

 _She didn't come back._

Daphne started awake, tears running down her face. She curled into a ball and cried for the sister that she had lost. For the sister who had been gone four days before she walked out of the gate to die.


End file.
